D.C. United news & notes: Perry Kitchen knee injury is not serious

When the test results on his injured right knee arrived, D.C. United defensive midfielder Perry Kitchen braced for bad news. At the very least, he and club officials expected him to miss at least a few weeks and maybe require surgery.

To everyone’s relief, however, the MRI exam revealed no damage. Coach Ben Olsen might even include him on the 18-man roster for Wednesday night’s match against the Colorado Rapids at RFK Stadium (7:30 p.m. ET, Comcast SportsNet/DC, Direct Kick).

Kitchen’s reaction?

“Shocked, shocked. Very thankful. I watched it [on video]. It looked bad. It felt bad. When the doc told me, I was like, ‘Are you kidding me? You read the right MRI?’ Still a little bit of pain but nothing serious.”

Said Coach Ben Olsen: “It’s an absolute relief. I knew he was. Perry’s funny: He was upset at himself because he came out of the game and the fact that he had nothing injured. He apologized profusely. We all saw the film — it looked pretty scary.”

“I don’t think it’s going to get any worse,” he said. “After these two weeks, we’ve got a long stretch of a break, so if [Olsen] puts me in the lineup, I will be ready to go.”

The status of central defenders Dejan Jakovic and Emiliano Dudar remains unclear. Ethan White continues to progress after earning a game-day roster slot for the first time last weekend. However, he hasn’t played a competitive match since last fall.

“Some of the guys we had question marks around, none of them are real serious,” Olsen said, referencing Pontius, Maicon Santos and Chris Korb.

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